Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 29, Issue 15 - Index

Game Developers Give Us 2008 And 2009 At E3
The Latest Software And Hardware Is Announced At This Year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo
By Mark Carr
It’s been a few weeks since the world’s
leading video game developers,
designers and journalists gathered for
the E3 Media and Business Summit, also
known as the Electronic Entertainment
Expo (E3), to inform all the world of
the latest products to come to store
shelves in the coming months. With
the expo’s history of surprises, twists,
turns and hype, this year’s expo
left the community with plenty of
disappointments and much hype for
the holiday season and for next year.
E3, presented by the Electronic
Software Association (ESA), is essentially
a weeklong press conference where all
video game companies release new
information about upcoming video
games and video game hardware. The
expo has been going on for 13 years
and was held again this year at the
Los Angeles Convention Center. The
main console hardware manufacturers
such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft
announced new games and hardware
updates for their consoles while
third-party developers such as Sega,
Capcom, and Upisoft announce new
games for the systems and for the PC.
The week started strong with Microsoft’s
main press conference showing off main
Xbox 360 games such as “Resident Evil
4,” “Fallout 3,” “Fable II,” “Gear of War
2” and the biggest announcement of
the convention: “Final Fantasy XIII.” The
company also discussed casual games
such as “Scene It: Box Office Smash,”
online downloadable games such as
“Portal: Still Alive,” and a new Xbox
Interface replacing the dashboard
with Avatars similar to Nintendo and
a new window system. Along with a
strong lineup of games, the company
also announced partnerships with NBC
Universal and the online DVD rental
site Netflix to bring a large range of
watchable content to the online service
Xbox Live.
Nintendo’s press conference focused
mostly on casual games such as
“Shawn White Snowboarding,” “Wii
Sports: Resort” and “Wii Music” along
with the new Wii MotionPlus, a small
add-on to the Wiimote to increase the
controller’s sensitivity to movement.
Many panned Nintendo for focusing the
Wii on casual games while neglecting
their core audience by not having
“The Legend of Zelda” or a rumored
“Kid Icarus” title. The portable system
Nintendo DS lineup, however, came
out strong with “Sonic Chronicles: The
Dark Brotherhood,” “Chrono Trigger,”
“Spore Creatures” and the biggest
surprise of the press conference “Grand
Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.”
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Sony had a solid lineup with their
conference, giving shows for Playstation
3 (PS3) games such as “Resistance
2” and announced “MAG: Massive
Action Game,” a massive multi-player
war game that promises 256 player
battles. A highlight of the conference
is “LittleBigPlanet,” a community PS3
exclusive title where users can create
their own platforming levels and
share them with the PS3 community.
The company also announced a
few PSP titles including “Resistance:
Retribution.”
The third party developers also had a
large display of games for all markets.
All gamers can look forward to music
games like Activision Blizzard’s “Guitar
Hero: World Tour” and MTV Game’s
“Rockband 2.” Core fans will be pleased
with plenty of sequels like “Street Fighter
IV” from Capcom, a re-imagining of old
franchises like Upisoft’s “Prince of Persia,”
and a few new innovative titles, like
Electronic Arts’ “Mirror’s Edge” – about
a “runner” who runs away from police
by running across building rooftops. PC
owners can also look forward titles like
Electronic Arts’ “Spore,” and Blizzard’s
“Starcraft 2,” along with multi-platform
games like Valve’s “Left 4 Dead” and
Upisoft’s “Far Cry 2.”
//www.e3summit08.com
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